The new crop of blackberries will be ready for picking in 30 days or so, we have (had) a couple gallons in the freezer so I decided to make up a couple of blackberry pies - big 12". I ended up putting about half a gallon of berries in each pie. They turned out great - not sure why ( got lucky)? I am still getting accustomed to the convection oven. I cooked both of them at the same time and that worked out great. We ate one pie during the week and put one in the freezer. I still need to make a couple of other pies to make room for the berries coming soon. The fresh berries are also very good on cereal and make great shakes - which neither of us need!!??
It has been very interesting this week, feels like we have stepped back into the wild west. We may have to get re-adjusted to the city life. On Tuesday, I spent 6 hours with irrigation of the pasture, got some great water coverage and am hopeful that it helps the grass. We normally get 4 hours but the irrigater shorted us so he gave me extra, it was sure nice that we were here. I was also able to get the back pasture irrigated as well. The irrigation process does take time and the folks that help us do not have the time it takes to do a good job. We are grateful for what they are able to do!!
As I mentioned before, the cows and horse have consumed all the grass. I also mentioned that those smart animals decided to break through the fence to the adjacent pasture which is filled with lush green grass. The owners of the cows have not had any luck with getting hold of the owners to see if they can use the pasture. That whole issue has some bad baggage so I am not surprised. Two of the cows have calves which stay in our pasture and the moms head out for food. At the end of the day, they start crying to get back together, that is when we spring into action to move them together again. That task got a little tiresome as the week grew on. Mid-week I told the cow owners that they had to so something with the cows. I was not not going to fix the fence until they were moved. They did manage to find another 7 acre pasture and moved them on Thursday. We are now down to 1 horse - guess they will bring another horse back later this week end, that should be OK. With the good water coverage, cooler days and less overgrazing the grass should be fine for the rest of the summer?
Here is a little sidebar story on the cows - actually 1 cow named "blackie". Was picking the weeds in the front yard and put the piles of weeds over the fence so the cows could eat them. I finished up with a small area then moved to another project dam up a section of the ditch. I looked up and blackie was in our yard eating the weeds that remained. I don't really mind that but don't like what she leaves behind so Kathy and I moved her back to the pasture. I watched her for short time and then moved on to my task at hand. Within 15 minutes, blackie was back in the yard. She actually plows through the fence - just pushes the fence to the ground with her massive body. Needless to say that part of the fence does not have barbed wire. We moved her back and now my task is devoted to keeping the critter out of our yard. She was determined - I actually tried to drive her into the adjacent pasture - at the location where they broke the fence previously, that is where she usually goes but she would not take that bait, I ended up opening the gate and she again had wonderful greener pastures!!
Today, Kathy is at the Vintage Barn Show, she got set up yesterday - what a cooker to be out in the open (106). They have 50 vendors and should have a pretty good showing. She and 1 other lady from the Redding Hademade group are teaming up, each has a booth which are next to each other and when they need to go away the other watches - teamwork. That took me off the hook and I was able to spend the morning with my yard chores. We had two weeks of growth - not that long with the hot weather. During the week I changed the belt drive to the deck and blades, probably did not need either yet but it sure cuts nice now. The old blades were pretty dull. bent up and out of balance for sure! It did make a difference, less vibration and running very smooth.
The above are a snapshot of my booth and stagecoach rides, complete with stagecoach robberies! Ah, the fun of it all!!! I made back 10 X my booth fee in sales. That's called a sell-out in this business, so I very happy with that.
No golf for me this week, thought about it but decided to do other things instead. I did order up some new golf grips, I will replace them tomorrow. I have standard grips now and decided to try the jumbo grips. I have tried them in the past and like the feel. I was very surprised that Tracy did not have a vendor for changing golf club grips, we really don't have that many golfers or courses so guess that makes sense. If the re-gripping process goes smooth I may add that to my golf inventory as a service in addition to golf balls. There two ways to install them - one is with double stick tape and resin the other is with compressed air. I will use the tape for starters but the air sounds very simple and straight forward. I am looking forward to see how the new grips work out??
Guess I better get ready to help Kathy tear-down her booth. The set-up is very easy, she goes early, drive up to the booth, unload and the task is done. Vehicles are not allowed in the booth area on show day so the tear down is more difficult, vehicles are staged in a vendor parking area which is pretty close so the task of hauling the inventory should be pretty easy - much easier if all the items are sold. It will be interesting to see how she did? I am sure she will provide pics??!!
Enough for now - more later
Ron, Kathy and Tessie
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